This year's tenth season of American Idol featured Lauren Alaina, a young country singer from Georgia who seems to have made quite an impression on the Fox network. Although Alaina did not win the competition series, she has been given a starring position on Fox's special New Year's Eve telecast, American Country New Year's Eve Live. Starring alongside Alaina will be another country music star, Rodney Atkins. American Country New Year's Eve Live airs at 11 p.m. ET on Fox. -TVLine
Sarah Palin is on a mission to ensure that we never forget about her and her family. The former vice presidential candidate is trying to develop a reality series centered around her husband Todd and his career in the world of snowmobile racing. Believe it or not, it's not exactly the hottest project out there: both A&amp;E and TLC have passed. The latter network was the former home of the reality series Sarah Palin's Alaska, but I guess they figure that this new idea will palin comparison. Okay, not the best joke ever...I guess you don't really need to force comedy when it comes to a story about a former VP-candidate making a snowmobile reality show. -Zap2it
Although The Killing left us a bit underwhelmed with its season finale, we can't say we're not at least a bit excited for the return of the series in the spring of 2012. One promising feature of the upcoming second season: a guest role for Mad Men recurring player and Desperate Housewives star Mark Moses. Moses will play a new detective, Lt. Carlson, brought on to investigate the murder of Rosie Larsen. The Killing will keep Moses' character on for at least eight episodes. If we (and he) are lucky, maybe we'll be seeing Moses making his rounds to a few more AMC series. A zombie Duck Phillips might be intriguing. -THR

Top Story
The National Society of Film Critics has honored director Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama The Pianist with four awards, including best picture and best director. The group also named Adrien Brody as the year's best actor and gave scribe Ronald Harwood top screenplay honors. The New York-based National Society of Film Critics consists of 55 members who write for many of the United States' major newspapers and magazines. Along with other critics' groups, their picks normally help narrow the list of possible nominees for Oscars; this year, however, film critics' choices have been across the board, making predictions difficult to call.
Celebs
Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez is denyin rumors that she and her beau, actor Ben Affleck, plan to tie the knot on Valentine's Day in a $1.5 million wedding ceremony. According to The Associated Press, Lopez told a Brazilian newspaper, "We don't know when the wedding will be. We need to sit down together and choose a date." The interview, conducted at a new York hotel, was published Sunday in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper Jornal do Brasil.
Actor George Clooney, whose directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind premiered last Tuesday, said he will not direct again for a while, the AP reports. "I need to go make a living somewhere," Clooney told a crowd at a special screening of his film at the 14th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. Clooney added that starring in and directing film was a little harder than he thought. "You can't yell at the director when you're acting," he said.
A judge ruled that actor Paul Reubens, best known for playing Pee-wee Herman, will be allowed to challenge evidence against him in a misdemeanor child pornography case, the AP reports. Reubens, who was not present at Friday's hearing in Los Angeles, pleaded innocent to one count of possession of material depicting children under 18 engaging in sexual conduct. The charge stems from a search in November 2001 of Reuben's home.
Movies
Twentieth Century Fox is mounting an aggressive pursuit of top Oscar nominations for the sci-fi thriller Minority Report and its star Tom Cruise, which the studio claims is being ignored by the Golden Globes and critics' associations. "There has been a weird Academy bias against sci-fi," Fox chairman Tom Rothman told Variety. "There is that historical genre hurdle to cross."
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Networks are kicking off the year with series and season premieres--20 big-ticket projects--making January look more like September, according to Variety. The shows range form dramas, such as NBC's Mister Sterling and CBS' Queen Supreme, and reality, including Fox's Joe Millionaire and the WB's The Surreal Life. After weeks of holiday reruns, TV's existing hits will return with original episodes, including FX's The Shield and The Dead Zone.
Outgoing Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has been in negotiations for several months with MSNBC to have his own program, is dropping hints about the gig. "As of Monday, you will fear me," he told reporters at a news conference Friday. "I'm having a party tomorrow night. Well, my new boss will be there. And that's all I'm going to say," Ventura later said in a follow-up radio interview.
Music
A publicist for Tom Hanks said the actor never made an appearance at Phish's New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York. "There is no way he would come to New York for New Year's Eve," spokeswoman Wendy Morris told the AP. During the song "Wilson," a clip of Hanks' movie Castaway was played and a man who looked like the actor appeared on stage.
North American concert ticket sales hit a record $2.1 billion last year, thanks in part to acts such as Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones--and fans who shelled out up to $350 each for tickets. According to Reuters, data collected by concert trade publication Pollstar showed that while ticket prices for the top 100 acts averaged $46.56 per ticket, major acts like McCartney averaged $129.92 per ticket. Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni blamed high ticket prices on greedy rock stars who cripple the industry by demanding hefty guarantees from promoters.

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Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne renewed their wedding vows during a New Year's Eve party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hundreds of guests were on hand to watch the couple tie the knot again, including Justin Timberlake and Chris Rock. Sharon and Ozzy were first married on July 4, 1982, and had originally planned to renew their vows on their 20th anniversary but plans were delayed because of Sharon's battle with colon cancer. According to People.com, Sharon's father and former Black Sabbath manager, Don Arden, escorted her down the aisle while daughter Kelly served as a flower girl. The 1970s group The Village People provided the music for the celebration.
Celebs
Singer Diana Ross, who was arrested Monday for allegedly driving under the influence, said she was trying to rent a video and got lost when police stopped her, The Associated Press reports. Tucson Police stopped the singer at a Blockbuster video store, where she had pulled into a handicapped space, after someone reported seeing a vehicle swerving on the road. She twice denied she had been drinking and insisted she had gotten lost trying to rent a video.
A man who found Robert Redford's credit card near a convenience store in Orem, Utah, close to the actor's home and his Sundance resort, tried to extort signed memorabilia in exchange for the plastic, the AP reports. The man called the resort to report he'd found the card and was offered free ski lift passes and dinner for two to return it. When he insisted on signed memorabilia instead, the staff balked and called the police, who then traced the call and went to the man's home to retrieve it. Ah, the wonders of *69.
Movies
Twentieth Century Fox has postponed the release of the Heath Ledger starrer The Sin Eater because of some unintentionally funny special effects. The film revolves around a young conflicted New York priest (Ledger) investigating the case of the murdered French ambassador whose corpse is covered with mysterious Aramaic symbols. A post-production insider, who spoke to Variety on condition of anonymity, said the effects depicting sins flying out of the human body looked "like calamari." The occult thriller, which was slated for release Jan. 17, will now get a possible late-summer debut under its new title, The Order.
Industry
Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert said in her end-of-the-year message to the 98,000 SAG members that the union will make nice in 2003. According to Variety, Gilbert emphasized nonconfrontational, conciliatory approaches to key issues and a smooth relationship with other Hollywood guilds. Gilbert recapped the outlook for upcoming negotiations of commercial contracts by saying, "Negotiating fair wages and working conditions is the primary commitment of SAG." The current pact expires Oct. 30.
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A Montana man who legally changed his name to "Jack Ass" in 1997 as a crusade against drunk driving has sued media giant Viacom Inc., claiming its MTV show and feature pic, Jackass: The Movie, defamed his character. The suit, filed in November in Montana, claimed Viacom was "liable for injury to my reputation that I have built and defamation of my character which I have worked so hard to create." Mr. Ass, born Bob Craft, changed his name six years ago after his brother and a friend were killed in a car crash--theirs being the only vehicle involved. The suit, according to Reuters, asks for $10 million in damages.
Cable news networks CNN, Headline News, MSNBC and CNBC suffered double-digit drops in their year-end ratings compared to last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. In 2001, viewers depended on the television for updates on post 9/11 events--making a possible war with Iraq an enticing thing for the networks. Variety reports the only news cable network to experience growth last year was Fox News, which has become the prime peacetime network cable news destination.
Music
Tom Hanks made a surprise stage appearance at Vermont jam band Phish's sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve, which had fans shelling out more than $1,000 to get into the show, the AP reports. The band formed in the early 1980s and built a fan base through constant touring, becoming a top-grossing concert act by the mid-1990s. In 2000, exhausted from 17 years on the road, Phish announced they were calling it quits for awhile. The concert ended their two-year hiatus and kicked off a run of winter shows.

Columbus may have discovered America, but Hollywood made its own big discovery at the Columbus Day weekend box office, which is that it doesn't pay to open too many films at once.
Only two of the weekend's half-dozen wide openings managed to crack the Top Five. Despite all the new competition, it was Red Dragon that again took the biggest bite out of moviegoers' wallets with $17.6 million.
Sweet Home Alabama remained a sexy second with $14.1 million.
Brown Sugar, the sweetest of the new wide arrivals, finished third with $11.1 million.
The Transporter rolled into fourth place with $9.2 million.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a jolly fifth with $7.9 million, off only 4 percent. With over $158 million on hand, it's heading for $175 million.
The weekend's biggest box office punch came from Revolution Studios and Columbia's limited launch of Punch-Drunk Love with $380,000 at five theaters -- a mind boggling $76,000 per theater for the critically acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler. (For details, see OTHER OPENINGS below.)
Despite the lack of any Top Five blockbuster openings, key films jumped 25.5 percent over last year -- $100.3 million versus $79.87 million.
THE TOP TEN
Universal and Dino De Laurentiis's R rated thriller Red Dragon, presented in association with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, topped the chart again in its second weekend with an ESTIMATED $17.61 million (-52%) at 3,363 theaters (+6 theaters; $5,235 per theater). Its cume is approximately $63.2 million.
Directed by Brett Ratner, it stars Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
"We're very thankful that we're number one in a weekend where there's been seven new openings (at 200 or more theaters)," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said Sunday morning.
"The business (this weekend) is tremendous and might be $100 million when all is said and done. And having the number one film two weeks in a row with so many openings is something to be really grateful for."
Dragon's 52 percent slide, she noted, is "not unusual for sequel or prequel films. It's not unusual for a film to take a drop like that. But with not much opening wide but one film next week, I think we're going to play out. We're at $62.2 million at the end of this weekend and this certainly will break $100 million. That puts it in the blockbuster category and it's something to celebrate."
Buena Vista/Touchstone's PG-13 rated romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama fell one peg to second place in its second week, showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $14.1 million (-34%) at 3,313 theaters (+10 theaters; $4,256 per theater). Its cume is approximately $85.0 million, heading for $125 million or more in domestic theaters.
Directed by Andy Tennant, it stars Reese Witherspoon.
Fox Searchlight Pictures' PG-13 rated urban appeal romantic comedy Brown Sugar opened in third place to a very promising ESTIMATED $11.05 million at 1,372 theaters ($8,054 per theater).
Brown Sugar's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa, it stars Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan.
"We're thrilled and ecstatic," Fox Searchlight Pictures distribution president Stephen Gilula said Sunday morning. "It's just an excellent result. It's a delightful PG-13 romantic comedy with a great ensemble cast and it has great music. We've gotten an excellent response.
"We did a few exit surveys and we have an 85 percent definite recommend, which is superb. We also see signs of the film crossing over and spreading out from the core African-American audience so everything is very, very positive about this. It's a really strong movie that plays very well."
Will Searchlight go wider with Brown Sugar? "We might," Gilula replied. "We will see this week, depending upon what the demand is as we examine more closely how well it did around the country. It is a very, very crowded marketplace, but we are seeing some evidence of cross over following in the footsteps of what Barbershop was able to do."
Searchlight chose to take the film out this weekend, Gilula explained, because, "We knew there was a very strong core audience of African-American moviegoers who are very loyal when you have a good movie. And with our cast and (the fact that the film) tested very well and there was no other film (like it) coming in the market and it was already the fifth week of Barbershop, we were not too worried about the core constituency for this film.
"We knew what we have and felt the other films would be competing with each other, not with us. We knew that we would not be competing for number one, given the strength of Red Dragon and Sweet Home Alabama. But based on our screen average and our number of screens, it's a terrific result."
As for adding theaters, he said, "We will be talking about that tomorrow morning. I think there is a possibility of that. We just want to digest what's happened and see how far to go."
20th Century Fox's PG-13 rated action drama The Transporter kicked off in fourth place to an energetic ESTIMATED $9.15 million at 2,572 theaters ($3,558 per theater).
Directed by Cory Yuen, it stars Jason Statham and Shu Qi.
"A good start for a crowded weekend," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said Sunday morning.
Who was on hand? "It was largely male, of course," Snyder replied. "63 percent male. And evenly divided by age, under-25 and over-25, which I found somewhat surprising. So it played even a little older than one might expect."
IFC Films' release of Gold Circle Films and HBO's PG rated romantic comedy blockbuster My Big Fat Greek Wedding slid one slot to fifth place in its 26th week, still holding unbelievably well with an ESTIMATED $7.87 million (-4%) at 2,016 theaters (+45 theaters; $3,902 per theater). Its cume is approximately $158.4 million, heading for $175 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by Joel Zwick, it stars Nia Vardalos and John Corbett.
DreamWorks' PG-13 action comedy The Tuxedo dropped three pegs to sixth in its third week, holding decently with an ESTIMATED $7.0 million (-30%) at 2,985 theaters
(-37 theaters; $2,358 per theater). Its cume is approximately $37.0 million.
Directed by Kevin Donovan, it stars Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Warner Bros.' PG-13 rated drama White Oleander arrived in seventh place to a calm ESTIMATED $5.66 million at 1,510 theaters ($3,745 per theater).
Directed by Peter Kosminsky, it stars Alison Lohman, Robin Wright-Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and Renee Zellweger.
"The exits were very strong," Warner Bros. Distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning. "The audience was about 65 percent female, but 50 percent were under the age of 25. A little bit younger than we had hoped for. The exits were all very positive. So we'll see what happens during the week. Ya-Ya (last summer's Warner Bros. hit "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) in some respects had a similar pattern in terms of audience mixture. (It had) a good reaction in that women came out strong during the week."
Buena Vista/Disney's PG rated fantasy family film Tuck
Everlasting opened in eighth place to a quiet ESTIMATED $5.5 million at 1,185 theaters ($4,658 per theater).
Directed by Jay Russell, it stars Alexis Bledel, Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek, Jonathan Jackson and William Hurt.
New Line Cinema's R rated drama Knockaround Guys opened ninth, knocked for a loop with an ESTIMATED $5.04 million at 1,806 theaters ($2,791 per theater).
Written and directed by Brian Koppelman &amp; David Levien, it stars Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Seth Green, Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich.
Rounding out the Top Ten was MGM's PG-13 rated urban appeal comedy Barbershop, down five rungs in its fifth week with a shorter ESTIMATED $4.0 million (-39%) at 1,911 theaters (-265 theaters; $2,093 per theater). Its cume is approximately $65.4 million, heading for $75-80 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by Tim Story, it stars Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve and Cedric The Entertainer.
OTHER OPENINGS
This weekend also saw the arrival of Lions Gate Films' R rated drama The Rules of Attraction to a soft ESTIMATED $2.4 million at 1,430 theaters ($1,678 per theater).
Written and directed by Roger Avary, it stars James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Ian Somerhalder, Kip Pardue and Kate Bosworth.
Miramax's G rated animated sequel Pokemon 4Ever opened to a weak ESTIMATED $0.68 million at 249 theaters ($2,710 per theater).
Revolution Studios and Columbia's R rated romantic comedy drama Punch-Drunk Love kicked off to an outstanding ESTIMATED $0.38 million at 5 theaters ($76,000 per theater).
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson.
"We've got a spectacular start for Punch-Drunk Love," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing &amp; distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning.
"It's really eye-popping. Just as a point of comparison (consider) two recent limited (releases). Royal Tenenbaums also was in five runs and did $277,000 for a $55,396 average. American Beauty, which took 16 runs, did $861,000 for a $53,846 average. Those are kind of the state-of-the-art limiteds with really what has to be considered terrific per screen averages in the mid-$50,000s. So to be in the mid-$70,000s is pretty exciting."
Is this the biggest average ever for a limited release? "I've got two asterisks for you," Blake explained. "The first asterisk is that for over two runs, it certainly is the biggest -- with one exception. And that's (Disney's) Pocahontas, which had a stage show in both New York and L.A. (and averaged $448,286 per theater with six runs the weekend of June 16-18, 1995). But other than that, you can find a couple of (films with) two runs (that averaged more). For instance, (Fox's) Moulin Rouge had two runs at $83,000 average. But for over two runs and noting the one exception on Pocahontas, this is the biggest."
Punch-Drunk Love is playing this weekend, he said, "in New York with two runs, L.A. with two runs and Toronto (at one theater). We'll be expanding (this Friday) to introduce it to several more cities and then going wider on Oct. 25 and wider still on Nov. 1. But this week, probably in the neighborhood of 85 runs in 11 cities."
"We're playing just about the same number of seats in all five of these complexes," Revolution partner Tom Sherak said Sunday morning. "They're all somewhere between 750 and 800 seats. They're all about the same (in terms of grosses). In the Union Square (in New York), Friday was $26,100. Saturday was $30,800. The Paramount (in Toronto) was $26,600 (Friday) and Saturday was $27,700. Lincoln Square (in New York) was $20,800 (Friday) and then $27,600.
"The Grove (in L.A.) was $25,300 (Friday) and then $26,500. And the Criterion (in Santa Monica) was $19,500 (Friday) and then $25,000. They're the same numbers in the same seats. That's what to me is amazing. It means that the capacity is all there at night and they're playing to the same amount of people wherever it is. Toronto sometimes can fall behind New York, but not (in this case)."
Wherever Punch-Drunk Love has played to date, Sherak added, the critics have loved it: "It was in the Toronto Film Festival. It was the centerpiece in the New York Film Festival. I don't know a picture this year that's gotten the kind of overall reviews this picture's gotten. Time and Newsweek, Rolling Stone, L.A. Times, New York Times -- they're all great reviews. You're going to see that more and more. It's critically acclaimed. It's just incredible."
Screen Gems' opening of its R rated romantic drama Swept Away made no box office waves, drowning with an ESTIMATED $0.375 million at 196 theaters ($1,913 per theater).
Directed by Guy Ritchie, it stars Madonna, Adriano Giannini, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Bruce Greenwood.
"Nobody gets hurt in this one," Sony's Jeff Blake said. "This was an $11 million negative, which we took a very cautious releasing strategy on. Really, there's no major exposure to anybody in this."
United Artists' R rated satiric documentary Bowling For Columbine opened via MGM to a high scoring ESTIMATED $0.21 million at 8 theaters in New York and L.A. ($25,750 per theater).
Written, produced and directed by Michael Moore, it won the Special Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Miramax's Dimension Films opened its R rate horror film Below to a below par ESTIMATED $0.2 million at 168 theaters ($1,190 per theater).
Directed by David Twohy, it stars Matt Davis and Bruce Greenwood.
Miramax's R rated comedy Comedian opened to a very funny ESTIMATED $61,000 at 4 theaters ($15,250 per theater).
Directed by Christian Charles, it stars Jerry Seinfeld.
SNEAK PREVIEWS
This weekend saw DreamWorks hold 400 sneak previews Saturday night of its PG-13 rated horror thriller The Ring.
Directed by Gore Verbinski, it stars Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson and Brian Cox.
"From a capacity standpoint, the average was about 70 percent overall with about 10 percent of them selling out," DreamWorks distribution head Jim Tharp said Sunday morning.
"It was 58 percent male and 42 percent female, fairly evenly split under and over 25. In the definite recommend area, it was above average for everyone and substantially above average for the under-25 group."
Ring opens wide this Friday (Oct. 18) at 1,800 to 2,000 theaters.
EXPANSIONS
On the expansion front this weekend Buena Vista/ Disney's PG rated animated feature Spirited Away went wider in its fourth week with an okay ESTIMATED $0.6 million (+2%) at 138 theaters (+41 theaters; $4,517 per theater). Its cume is approximately $2.7 million.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it was the Golden Bear best picture winner at the Berlin International Film Festival. Spirited is the all-time top grossing film at the Japanese box office.
Lions Gate Films' R rated kinky romance Secretary expanded in its fourth week with an appealing ESTIMATED $0.45 million (+13%) at 149 theaters (+43 theaters; $3,020 per theater). Its cume is approximately $1.8 million.
Directed by Steven Shainberg, it stars James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
United Artists' R rated dark comedy Igby Goes Down widened in its fourth week, holding well with an ESTIMATED $0.45 million (-8%) at 155 theaters (+8 theaters; $2,889 per theater). Its cume is approximately $3.3 million.
Written and directed by Burr Steers, it stars Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Jared Harris, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman and Susan Sarandon.
Focus Features' R rated French comedic whodunit 8 Women expanded in its fourth week, still showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $0.3 million (-15%) at 85 theaters (+3 theaters; $3,505 per theater). Its cume is approximately $1.7 million.
Directed by Francois Ozon, it stars Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Ludivine Sagnier and Firmine Richard.
WEEKEND COMPARISONS
Key films -- those grossing more than $500,000 -- took in approximately $100.25 million for the weekend, up about 25.52 percent from last year when they totaled $79.87 million.
Key films were down about 4.1 percent from the previous weekend this year when they totaled $104.54 million.
Last year, Warner Bros.' second week of Training Day was first with $13.39 million at 2,712 theaters ($4,936 per theater); and MGM's opening week of Bandits was second with $13.05 million at 3,207 theaters ($4,069 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $26.5 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $31.7 million.

Synopsis

Cat Deeley hosts a Times Square New Year's Eve celebration featuring musical performances and celebrity guests. Show will also feature live remotes from three cities hosting the Bowl Championship Series in Arizona, Florida and Louisiana.